When we’re not in the shop, we’re often cooking, eating or reading about food. Recently, we opened a Pinterest account and started pinning staff favorites – cookbooks, food memoirs and culinary references among them. Here are a few of our favorite reads – for the full list (an ongoing project), check out our Pinterest account!

Chez Panisse Café Cookbook – by Alice L. Waters – all of Chef Waters’ books are amazing. Don’t expect fancy pictures, just lots of fascinating information and delicious recipes that never fail. In this volume, don’t miss making the “Morel Mushroom Toasts.”

The Perfect Scoop – by David Lebovitz – a seminal ice cream book. Several ice-cream-loving staffers swear by Lebovitz’s work, saying they only make ice creams from his recipes. Good thing then that there’s a whole host of flavors to choose from! Another hit from a brilliant pastry chef.

The Flavor Bible – by Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg – cheesemonger Erin flags this book as, “a handy manual for inspiration and improvisation!” Our Catering Manager, Liz, adds, “this book inspires food pairings you’d never think of. It is my go-to book when I’m stumped on what flavors work together.”

Culinaria – this is a series of books and each volume touches on the food traditions of a different country (Russia, Italy, Germany, China, Hungary, etc.) in great detail. As mail order manager, Adam, highlights, it provides both, “in-depth gastronomical histories and authentic recipes,” as well as an, “awesome overviews of each country’s regions.”

Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper – by Fuchsia Dunlop – one of Alyssa’s picks, she says this book was, “a window into a different culture; it completely reinvented Chinese cooking for me.”

Cheese Primer – by Steven W. Jenkins – arguably the book most commonly recommended to a new cheesemonger.

Mastering Cheese – by Max McCalman and David Gibbons – an excellent book that touches on how cheese is made, some of the science behind it and how we go about tasting it!